The Sandisfield Arts Center began its 30th year since incorporation with a weekend focused on Sandisfield.

The newly renovated gallery featured Sandisfield artists with a large opening reception of "The Landscape We Live In," with their works looking at our own countryside. We dedicated the galley as the Garfield Family Gallery, honoring Leslie and Johanna Garfield, formerly of Fox Road, whose children's generosity contributed significantly to the funding of SARC's renovations.

Saturday morning, Ron Bernard presented a slide show about the long and changing history of the building that now houses the Sandisfield Arts Center, from its 19th century Baptist roots, evolution as an Orthodox rural synagogue, and now a flourishing arts center. That afternoon, Hannah Fries and Hilde Weisert, two local poets, read original poems about the plants and landscapes that surrounds us.

The finale of the weekend, "Unsung Heros," honored six Sandisfield residents who contribute in myriad ways to making Sandisfield a special place. The event was described in the June issue of The Sandisfield Times, with a photo of the honorees, our neighbors.

The momentum of the first weekend continued into the second with three horse- themed events. Saturday morning Kari Weil, a professor at Wesleyan University and part-time resident of Monterey, spoke to a packed audience at the newly renamed "Susie Crofut and Ben Luxon Theater" about the emotional connection between horses and people.

That connection was eloquently described in the afternoon when three award-winning local writers, Courtney Maum, Donnaldson Brown, and Barbara Newman, read from their books about horses. Rose Nelson of Sandisfield's own Sunny Rose Farm contributed to the event discussing her journey to create and sustain her stable on Dodd Road.

Sunday, poetry was again the theme with participants reading horse-related poetry written by the readers and such well-known poets as Mary Oliver and Maxine Kumin.

June 20 began our Open Mic Fabulous Friday's Series. On the third Friday of the next three months (four months in total), everyone is invited to participate at the Sandisfield Arts Center. This is the perfect opportunity to test your performing ability as a singer, songwriter, actor, and reader before a welcoming audience. All ages are encouraged to participate, test their theatrical acumen in our newly air-conditioned building.

The thespian theme continued Saturday morning when 91-year old Sally-Jane Heit read from her new book, "Not Yet," an outgrowth of a serious hospital experience in 2022. Possibly dying, Sally-Jane understood that she wasn't ready to kick the bucket when she realized she hadn't completed her bucket list. The top of that list had yet to be discovered. With her humor, warmth, and openness, she has now been re-discovered right here in Sandisfield.

Looking forward

That kind of rich programing continues throughout the summer.

On the cusp of July, June 29, from 4:00-6:00 p.m., two award-winning pianists, residents of Otis Wood Lands, Paul Posnak and Anita Castiglione, provide an opportunity to see and hear four-hand playing on the Art Center's Steinway piano. Posnak and Castiglione, husband and wife, are internationally famous pianists who have performed concerts throughout the world. Their recent recording, "Gershwin for Two," featured, among other performances, Gershwin's own two-piano arrangement of "An American in Paris."

This concert will celebrate the intertwined relationship of the United States and France, central allies and influences upon each other at the historical moments that shaped their destinies. The concert features musical figures of the early and mid-Twentieth Century: Aaron Copland, George Gershwin and William Bolcom; and Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Francis Poulenc.

At the end of July, Saturday, July 26 at 8:00 p.m., a "Night of Comedy" will feature Seth Herzog and company, a popular New York comedian and actor who is currently a regular sketch performer and resident comedian for NBC's "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." Seth is the producer and host of the much-beloved, long-running downtown NYC comedy showcase "Sweet," which was performed at The Stand, one of Manhattan's premier comedy clubs.

In the middle of July, closer to home and of direct local interest are two Saturday morning talks at 10:00 a.m. On July 12, Tom Ryan of Monterey and South Berkshire District Management Forester will discuss forest management strategies. Even if you aren't a landowner, with new insect pests and climate change, Berkshire forests are changing rapidly and everyone is encouraged to learn more about the future of our woodlands. On Juyly 26, local historian Ron Bernard will present a slide show and talk about Sandisfield's ancient ceremonial landscapes.

In the gallery, there is still time to see the current exhibit between 11-3:00 p.m., on weekends through July 6.

Our next exhibit, "International Art Show: Beyond our Boundaries," has a new twist for Sandisfield. Following the 3-5:00 p.m. opening reception on Saturday, July 19 there will be a two-day international film festival upstairs in the Susie Crofut and Ben Luxon Theater. Part One follows immediately after the opening reception, from 5:15-7:30, with Part Two shown the next day from 2-5:00 p.m.

The film festival celebrates the creative minds of international artists who are students, faculty, and advisors from around the world. All are part of a unique, international low-residency MFA and PhD program accredited by Liverpool John Moores University (UK). There are 77 video shorts by 72 artists from around the world produced over a period of 16 years.